Book of Mormon

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When I was a little child, I always wondered about the story of the wise men in the Gospel of Matthew.  Traditional thought still identify them as the “three Magi,” but the actual number of men is not actually stated.  All we know is that some time after the birth of Jesus Christ “there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem” (Matthew 2:1) who after seeing “his star” (The King of the Jews’ star) eventually found the child, presented him gifts, and worshiped Him.

Perhaps you too find that this story raises many questions.  Matthew wrote that the wise men saw “his star” and came to “worship him” (Matthew 2:1).   Note carefully! The story does not say an angel visited them and pronounced to the wise men that the star was a sign that a Messiah had been born.  Nor does the account say that the wise men had a revelation or a dream, as when they were warned in a dream not to return to Herod (Matthew 2:13).   I would think that if there had been such a divine intervention about the birth of the Messiah that Matthew would have noted this miracle in his Gospel. 

Instead, we are told simply that they saw the star and came to worship the King of the Jews.   For the sake of this discussion, let’s assume that they did not receive this knowledge in the form of divine inspiration, but had learned this information from the oral and written traditions of their forefathers. 

The LDS dictionary states of the wise men: “Their knowledge was precise and accurate.” (see Magi)    If so, is it possible to identify at least one likely source of their precise and accurate information?

Knowing where the wise men came from helps us to locate one source of this knowledge.  There are five clues found in the Biblical text that can help us pinpoint the origins of the magi with a high degree of certainty.

• First, they came “from the east.”  In the Bible, east did not necessarily stand for central Asia or China or any other land in a eastward direction from Jerusalem.  Rather, it was a place, Arabia.  In the Old Testament the Arabs were called “the Children of the East” (LDS Bible Dictionary).  Perhaps this is the reason the wise men are traditionally associated with camels. 
• Second, the wise men followed a star.  In other words, they knew stellar navigation.  This clue strongly suggests that the wise men were Arabs.  Stellar navigation was considered specialized knowledge in the ancient world.  The first to learn this skill were the Arab caravaneers who used the stars to guide them through the featureless wasteland of desert Arabia.  This knowledge was later utilized by Arab ship captains to navigate the open seas — the first to do so using the stars to guide them. 
• Third, the wise men brought gold with them.  The wise men must have been wealthy tribal leaders with access to gold.  During that period of history, it is widely believed that the Frankincense trade had made southern Arabia the wealthiest place in the world.  Gold, probably traded by the people of India for frankincense, was abundant in the region.  Isaiah talks of the great wealth of the southern Arabs (Sheba) noting that they bring with them, gold and incense (Isaiah 60:6).  Daniel Peterson writes:

  The great wealth of Arabian merchants is mentioned in several places in the Bible.  “Who is this that cometh out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all powders of the merchant?” asks the Song of Solomon (Songs of Solomon 3:6).  Ezekiel refers to “Sabaeans from the wilderness, which put bracelets upon their hands, and beautiful crowns upon their heads” (Ezekiel 23:42).  Arabian merchants are routinely linked by the Old Testament with gold and silver, incense, spices, and precious stones (2 Chronicles, Isaiah 60:6, Jeremiah 6:29, Ezekiel 27:22).[i]

• Fourth, the wise men brought precious incense with them, specifically frankincense and myrrh. In antiquity the exclusive source of these incenses was southern Arabia, for many years carried to the north on the backs of camels.  In Genesis we read how Joseph was sold by his brothers to an Ishmaelite (Arab) caravan bearing spices, balm and myrrh (Genesis 37:25). 
•    Fifth, the LDS Bible Dictionary states that the wise men were “likely… representatives of a branch of the Lord’s people” (see Magi).  This would seem to imply that the wise men were Jews, or at least Hebrews (as are most Arabs).   Assuming the former, historical records indicate that several sizable Jewish settlements were located in Arabia dating back at least to the time of Jeremiah.  Of course, the Jewish Diaspora had started long before the birth of Christ, thus Jewish communities existed in other locations in the Roman Empire; however, the Arabian Jewish communities were large and had existed for centuries before the Lord’s birth.

It is my opinion that the clues found in the Bible, “from the east”, stellar navigators, gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh” are sufficient to allow us to conclude with a relatively high degree of confidence that the wise men came from Arabia.  With this in mind, we can now return to our question, “How did the wise men obtain a precise and accurate knowledge of Christ’s birth?”  Let’s start by reviewing just what information they seem to have possessed.  

1) When they saw the star the wise men knew it was a “sign.”  Indeed, it was “his star” (Matthew 2:2).  Since they were the only people who apparently saw the star in the old world, they must have known when to look for it.  Indeed, it seems they had been waiting a long time for the sign, for when the saw it “they rejoiced with exceeding great joy” (Matthew 2:10). 2)            They knew that a King would be born to the “Jews” (Matthew 2:
2) Thus they came to Jerusalem and Herod — the land of the Jews.
3) Although they knew the Christ Child was to be born to the Jews, they didn’t know the actual location in Judah.  Thus we see them asking Herod, “Where is he that is born King of the Jews?” (Matthew 2:2).  They finally ended up following the star to the location of the child (Matthew 2:9)

Prior to the coming forth of the Book of Mormon in the modern era, Christendom had no explanation of how Arab wise men could have obtained this knowledge.  However, the Book of Mormon provides a simple explanation of how this knowledge could have reached southern Arabia, or at least the Jewish communities in the Arabian Peninsula. 

We know that Lehi was en route to Bountiful for eight years (1 Nephi 17:4), and undoubtedly spent a few more years in southern Arabia building the ship they would use to travel to the promised land.  During this time Nephi, and probably Lehi, taught the gospel (D&C 33:7, 8).  It is possible that they preached exclusively to the Jewish communities in Arabia, but this is not necessarily the case since the gospel seems to have been found among the Arabs as well as the Jews.

For example, Jethro, a Midianite (from northwest Arabia) held the Holy Priesthood (D&C  84:6), and Arabs attended the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:11).  Thus, there were no shortage of Hebrews, Jews and Arabs, with whom Nephi and Lehi could have shared the gospel. 

So what new knowledge could Lehi and Nephi have shared with those in southern Arabia?  In the valley of Lemuel, Lehi received a revelation containing information on the Savior’s birth:  “Yea, even six hundred years from the time that my father left Jerusalem, a prophet would the Lord God raise up among the Jews — even a Messiah, or, in other words, a Savior of the world” (1 Nephi 10:4).  Certainly, Lehi and Nephi would have transferred this important information to the people they converted in Arabia. 

Next, we see from the above verse that Lehi knew where the Messiah would be born — “among the Jews.”  Although the Jews knew exactly where Christ would be born, Bethlehem (Micah 5:2), neither the wise men nor Lehi seemed to have had this knowledge.  This by the way would rule out the wise men having come from the large Jewish settlement in and around Babylon, since that community kept close religious and scholarly ties to the Jews in Jerusalem[ii] and therefore undoubtedly had the writings of the prophet Micah.

Lehi, on the other hand, would have taught the forefathers of the wise men that in 600 years the Messiah would be born among the Jews, but could not have transferred the knowledge as to the specific city in which to find the child.

Finally, Lehi would have taught them that they should worship the child.  To believing monotheists this would have been a significant matter… worshiping someone besides the one true God, Our Father In Heaven.   Lehi knew that Jesus would be more than just another prophet; he would be the Messiah, the Savior and Redeemer of the world (1 Nephi 10:4, 5).  

At first glance this seems to contradict what the wise men said: “Where is he that is born King of the Jews?  This suggests that they were looking for a political figure.  However, they follow by noting that they “are come to worship him” (Matthew 2:2).  Thus, they must have known that the child was the Son of God, the Messiah, for they were there to worship him. 

It is interesting to note that Joseph Smith corrected the translation, rephrasing Matthew 2:2 as follows, “Where is the child that is born, the Messiah of the Jews?”  It is clear from Joseph Smith’s translation that the wise men knew that the appearance of a star that year meant that the Messiah had been born. 

How could they have known this?  Lehi wrote that in 600 years:  “a prophet would the Lord God raise up among the Jews — even a Messiah”.  (1 Nephi 10:4). 

The knowledge possessed by the wise men was precious, and they seemed to have learned this information in their homeland, probably Arabia.  Though on the surface, it seems difficult if not impossible to explain how this information came to the forefathers of the wise men; the Book of Mormon provides a natural explanation for why these wise men appear in our Christmas story today.

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